Larry R. Avens

Magnetic separation for environmental remediation

Magnetic separation is a physical separation process that segregates materials in a mixture on the basis of magnetic susceptibility. Because all actinides and their compounds and fission products are paramagnetic, and most host materials such as water, graphite, soil, and sand are diamagnetic, magnetic separation methods can be used to extract the actinides from these hosts, concentrating the toxic materials into a low volume waste stream. The technology relies only on physical properties, and therefore separations can be achieved while producing little or no secondary waste.

Aqueous and pyrochemical reprocessing of actinide fuels

Processing of the nuclear fuel actinides has developed in two independent directions—aqueous processing and pyroprocessing. Similarities in the two processes, their goals, and restraints are indicated in brief parallel descriptions along with distinguishing advantages and areas of future development. It is suggested that from a technical viewpoint, the ultimate process might be a hybrid which incorporates the best steps of each process.

ANALYTICAL APPLICATIONS OF SUPERACID DISSOLUTION OF ACTINIDE AND LANTHANIDE SUBSTRATES

The superacid system HF/SbF5 is extraordinarily effective for total dissolution of actinide and lanthanide ceramic oxides, fluorides, and metals. Optical or gamma spectroscopy can be used directly on the solutions. Evaporation of the HF/SbF5 solvent under vacuum leaves a residue which is easily dissolved by ordinary mineral acids. The resulting aqueous solutions are readily amenable to conventional analytical methods.

Development program to recycle and purify plutonium-238 oxide fuel from scrap

Nuclear Materials Technology (NMT) Division of Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) has initiated a development program to recover & purify plutonium-238 oxide from impure sources. A glove box line has been designed and a process flowsheet developed to perform this task on a large scale. Our initial effort has focused on purification of 238PuO2 fuel that fails to meet General Purpose Heat Source (GPHS) specifications because of impurities. The most notable non-actinide impurity was silicon, but aluminum, chromium, iron and nickel were also near or in excess of limits specified by GPHS fuel powder specifications. 234U was by far the largest actinide impurity observed in the feed material because it is the daughter product of 238Pu by alpha decay. An aqueous method based on nitric acid was selected for purification of the 238PuO2 fuel. All aqueous processing used high purity reagents, and was performed in PTFE apparatus to minimize introduction of new contaminants. Impure 238PuO2 was finely milled, then di...

Metal corrosion studies with the fluorosulphonic acid-antimony pentafluoride superacid system

Abstract Because of their rapid dissolution of many actinide metals and refractory oxides, superacids such as HSO 3 F/SbF 5 have potential applications in actinide processing. However, material compatibility must first be addressed because of the highly corrosive nature of superacids. This paper describes the qualitative rates of attack of fluorosulphonic acid–antimony pentafluoride superacid on a variety of metal substrates relevant to nuclear processing.

Tank waste remediation system milestone report magnetic separation of tank waste: Surrogate system separations report

High-level radioactive waste (HLW) has been stored in large underground storage tanks (UST) at the US Department of Energy`s Hanford Site since 1944. More than 253,000 m{sup 3} of waste have been accumulated in 177 tanks. The waste consists of many different chemicals and are in the form of liquids, slurries, salt cakes and sludges. A magnetic separation effort at Los Alamos National Laboratory is funded through the Tank Waste Remediation System (TWRS) to explore the use of high-gradient magnetic separation (HGMS) for tank waste segregation. The concept is to concentrate into a low volume waste stream, all or most of the magnetic components, which include actinide compounds, most of the fission products and precious metals. As a first step in this process investigations were made on surrogate systems. This milestone report discusses the HGMS results on these systems.